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I had originally intended on posting this a few days ago, but I haven't been able to for various reasons, so I'm adding some other things we've done.

On the weekend before last, Vicki Lawrence did a show near where Beth's mom and uncle live in South Jersey, so we went down and saw it with him. Her uncle is the one who introduced her to Mama's Family, and I mostly know about him from Beth. She talked about her start in show business and first meeting Carol Burnett, whom people thought she looked like. Her current husband did makeup for the show, and she and her former husband used to go on dates with them. He's the one who wrote "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia," which she sang at the show, as well as the Mama's Family theme, which she wrote, but they didn't use the lyrics. She mentioned that the Carol Burnett "The Family" sketches that led to the later show were done in a Southern accent to be like "Tennessee Williams on acid." She then did about half the show in character as Thelma Harper, with her observations on modern society and current events, including doing a rap. Then she came back as herself for a tribute to people she'd worked with who are gone now.

Earlier that day, we went to eat at Lucille's Luncheonette, a mostly breakfast place that closes early, and has a statue of the Jersey Devil in the front.

We'd brought Nellie down to South Jersey, as she'd lived there for a while before, and doesn't seem to mind the car ride. Felix is nervous even here, so we were afraid he'd be even worse in a strange place, and left him up here. It seemed to work out all right, except when she came back, he hissed at her. Apparently there's a thing where, if a cat picks up weird smells while away, even other cats who know them don't always recognize them at first. I think they're getting along again now, although she can play pretty rough.

Our last two cats never wanted to sit in this pumpkin.

They sat up here pretty often, though.

On Thursday, we saw Ben Folds in Tarrytown, of Headless Horseman fame. Ben was messed up on medication for bronchitis, and seemed to forget parts of songs sometimes. He cut "Annie Waits" short, then explained his condition and started playing something else. He talked a bit about "Still Fighting It," saying that when his son was born, it looked like he was having a really bad time. It's kind of weird to hear that song now, as it mentions something potentially happening "in twenty years or so," and it's been more than that since then. I get the impression that having kids makes you more aware of the passage of time. There were three Ben Folds Five songs in the setlist, "Eddie Walker," Don't Change Your Plans," and "Kate." We ate at a nearby burger place before the show, and there was a yarn store next door to the venue with this colorful sheep outside.

This past Sunday, we visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Since we're members, we usually go on member-only weeknights, but both today and last Tuesday were closed for private events. A week ago, we went to Green-Wood Cemetery instead.

On Sunday, it was pretty crowded. The cherry blossoms were in bloom, and a lot of people were gathered in that area.

There were also magnolias and a lot of different kinds of tulips near the conservatory building.

Yesterday, we saw John Waters at the City Winery in Manhattan, and it was his seventy-eighth birthday. He covered some of the same topics he did when we've seen him speak in the past, but had plenty of new stuff as well. I don't have any pictures of that, because they weren't allowed. I did get some pictures of the place right near the venue, which is called Tiny Island, and has a big hill with a good view and, for some reason, a lot of hypnotic spirals.

I've had a cold for a while now, which isn't that common for me, or at least it hasn't been in the past. I've been taking medicine, and for the most part it's not an especially big deal, but my head has been feeling congested. I'm not sure what the best way to deal with that is. I haven't much felt like writing recently, except for these posts, but I do have some stuff that I've finished at least in draft form, and I'm wondering if I should share some of it. It's pretty much all Oz stuff.

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Noel: Dancing Is Dangerous

We brought our new cat, Felix, back from the shelter the Friday before last. I assume he's named after the cartoon, but I can't say I know too much about it, other than that he has a bag of tricks. I haven't seen this guy use such a bag, but maybe that's the trick. The first few days, he hid under the bed most of the time, and Nellie was hissing and growling at him. I know that can be a thing for cats, but I was hoping it wouldn't with her, since she was still a kitten and usually gets along with everybody. She did eventually stop, however, and now she tends to follow him around.

He's gotten better about exploring the apartment as well, although I still have an unfortunate tendency to startle him. Beth thinks it's because I move around loudly. If he's in a calmer mood, he really likes to be petted, and will lean into your hand. He's a very handsome cat. It takes a lot of stress off my mind that I know he's eating, drinking, and using the litterbox. I know he eats Nellie's kitten food even though I've put out regular cat food for him, but I can't really avoid that unless I feed Nellie at specific times, and that's a hassle. I don't think it's hurting him to eat kitten food, but it means I have to buy it more frequently.

On Thursday, we saw the Kevin Geeks Out show about mental health at the Nitehawk Cinema in Prospect Park, the easier one to get to. It seemed shorter than usual, and there was no Kindest Cut. Whether it actually WAS shorter, I don't know. But anyway, it was fun. There was discussion on how media, especially back in the eighties and nineties, tended to show mental illness that didn't reflect any actual disorders, or if someone does have a diagnosis, they show totally unrelated symptoms. They also have an uncanny ability and desire to help seemingly normal people. One of Kevin Maher's bits was about psychiatric professionals in horror movies, and how they're usually portrayed as awful, examples being Nightbreed, Friday the 13th Part VII, Cult of Chucky, and Poltergeist III, in the latter being used in a way that pretty much contradicts the first movie. He ended it by saying that the doctor in Nightmare on Elm Street 3 is much better, but also looks like Bill Maher.

One thing I've seen mentioned before that I don't think came up at the show was how fictional media rarely make distinctions between psychologists and psychiatrists; therapists are always prescribing medicine. I guess this is just to make things simpler. Max Bank did an in-character segment as an acting coach who teaches method acting for portraying the mentally ill. Another presentation was about how characters in shows for young children are often way more chipper than they were back in the seventies or so, complete with clips of how Daniel Striped Tiger from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood being incredibly depressed. I'm sure this is the kind of thing that goes in cycles to some degree and doesn't apply to every kids' show, but it was an interesting look. And there was a game where the audience guessed whether a particular brand had ever said anything about mental health on social media.

Current Music: Michael Nesmith: Tumbling Tumbleweeds

We're getting another cat! We were supposed to bring Nellie to meet another cat or two at a shelter, but they had a sickness going around, so that happened today instead. The cat we met today, Felix, was shy but affectionate, really leaning in when we pet him. Nellie was nervous, but didn't appear to have any real objection to him, no hissing or anything. We could have brought him home today, but he's getting another vaccination tomorrow, so the new plan is to pick him up on Friday. Nellie still seems out of sorts; she hid under the bed for a while when we got back home.

In other news, Beth and I have now been married for sixteen years. And since we got married on Leap Day, you could say we've had four actual anniversaries, if you wanted to be weirdly technical. It's a most ingenious paradox. We didn't actually celebrate on the day, though, aside from going out to eat. Instead, we took the day off on Friday, 1 March, and went on a tour of the catacombs at Old St. Patrick's Cathedral.

This isn't the same as the St. Patrick's near Rockefeller Center, although they're related; that one was built as sort of a replacement, although the old one is still open. It's on Mulberry Street in Nolita, and it's where they filmed the baptism scene from The Godfather.

John Hughes, the Archbishop of New York, was the one who proposed the building of the new cathedral, and also founded Fordham University. He was nicknamed Dagger John due to his aggressiveness.

The catacombs weren't as expansive as I might have figured. That's not to say they were small; I think they were about the same size as the church. It's just that, when I hear "catacombs," I kind of think of an underground labyrinth.

We were considering going somewhere else afterwards, maybe a museum or something, but it was already evening when we had finished with the tour. So instead we went to a few record stores and had dinner at a place called Bastard Burgers, mostly because Beth liked the name. It was one of those places where they smash the beef patties, and while I'm not entirely sure how that affects the taste, I did like it.

Last Saturday, we went to the Monster-Mania Convention in Cherry Hill, as we generally do twice a year. This one was Number 58, but that's counting some in other locations. Still, we've been to a lot of them. As usual, we mostly just attended the celebrity panels, although we did take a look at the dealer rooms. The first panel we saw was a cast reunion for Starship Troopers, which I did see in college, but don't remember particularly well. While I think I realized it was satirical, it was still too much of a war movie to really hold my interest. The room was already packed by the time we got there, so I didn't get any pictures of this one. Next was Michael Gross, whom I knew as the dad from Family Ties, but he was also in the Tremors films, which neither of us have seen.

Among other things, he talked about Tom Hanks playing his alcoholic brother-in-law. Then came actors from the 2013 version of The Evil Dead, another one neither of us have watched as of yet.

The first panel in the larger room was with Brad and Fiona Dourif, and I'm not sure we'd seen any other father and daughter sessions, although maybe I'm forgetting something. Somebody in the audience had him do the Chucky voice, even though he didn't want to, which I feel wasn't fair to him.

And the reunion for Children of the Corn, which we just saw, had John Franklin, Courtney Gains, and John Philbin.

After the convention, we ate at Friendly's. They brought back the mini mozzarella sticks, but they're even smaller now.

I hate that there are a few stories I have largely planned out, but trying to actually do the writing just feels tedious. But then, I've also pretty much finished with a few things and haven't done anything with them yet. I guess I haven't been particularly motivated, but I also feel there are ideas I want to get out and haven't figured out how to do so in an interesting way. Does anyone else know how that is? There's stuff I thought of when I was a kid that I think might be usable, but maybe I'm flattering myself.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Fastbacks: My Letters

Beth and I saw two Kids in the Hall earlier this month, and both of them made fun of the other. Kevin McDonald did a stand-up set at the New York Comedy Club on Monday the 5th. He mostly told stories, some of which I'd heard before. According to him, most stories comedians tell have details changed, so they're like making lemonade, while his are just lemons. On Saturday, we went with Beth's Uncle John to the City Winery in Philadelphia, where Scott Thompson did several Buddy Cole monologues, including some new ones that Amazon considered inappropriate for the new episodes they did last year. There was one about drag queen story hours, and how those were two things that didn't go together. I've wondered myself how that concept came about; I have no problem with it, but it does seem to come out of left field. He did one apologizing to aliens, and mentioned the anal probing jokes from KITH, and said that were all by Kevin and Dave Foley, not him. I was curious as to how many people realized that his bit about Ra masturbating out the other gods was a genuine Egyptian creation myth. Probably more than I thought, but I was still kind of proud to have noticed that. The thing about cereal magnate John Harvey Kellogg being fervently opposed to masturbation is also true, and kind of seems like it shouldn't be. On the other hand, "Kubla Khan" was not written by Omar Khayyam. After that show, we ate at a Chinese restaurant, after trying two that were closed. It WAS the New Year, I guess. The one where we ended up going had a robotic podium with a cat face that the staff used. I wanted to get a picture of it, but didn't. I do have a picture of a cotton candy machine from the same place.

I drove into Philadelphia in a borrowed car, because mine was getting repairs. They needed some kind of tool to remove some bolts in the engine, and it must have been really difficult to get, as it took a few weeks. It's probably one more issue with having an old car, although it's difficult for me to think of 2009 as old. I finally got my car back last week.

I started on Mounjaro recently, and it causes me to have much less of an appetite. That's probably good for blood sugar, and for money because I tend to buy a lot of snacks. But when you're used to eating a certain amount and you no longer can, it feels like a waste. I've been trying to adjust somewhat.

We're considering getting another cat to keep Nellie company, but so far it hasn't happened. We visited a cat cafe and a shelter, and were supposed to bring her to see some other cats last weekend (the email called it a "meet and greet," which makes it sound like these cats are celebrities), but they both caught a cold. Nellie tries to play with everything, so a playmate would probably be a good idea, but who knows how she'd get along with another cat? I wonder what she thinks of me. She does sometimes lie next to me in bed and purr, so I suppose that's a good sign. She's not as talkative as Wally and Reagan were, at least as of yet.

Current Music: Doris Day: Move Over Darling

We drove down to Pennsylvania last weekend, and went to Hersheypark on Saturday, as we still had extra tickets that we bought in April. I think it was the next to last possible day we could use them. It was cold, especially for my toes, but still not AS cold as you'd expect for that time of year. We got there quite a bit later than we wanted to, as the valve came off one of my tires when I was trying to put air in it. Fortunately, we were still near my dad's house, and he and Margaret were able to take off the tire and bring it in to get it patched. After that, however, the tire pressure warning light on my dashboard stayed on, even though the air level was fine. I'd just gotten my car serviced, but I waived the suggestion to have the tires replaced, as it was expensive, and would probably take a lot of time as those tires are hard to come by. I brought it in again today to have that done. We probably should get a new car soon, as I've had this one since 2009, but that's a big decision. But anyway, we rode Wildcat's Revenge for the first time, as it was still under construction on our last visit.

It's a refurbished version of the wooden roller coaster Wildcat with steel parts added, like what they did with Twisted Colossus at Magic Mountain.

They still had the Christmas decorations, a little awkward to see after Christmas, but it's technically still Christmastide until Epiphany.

The Dry Gulch Railroad was lined with lights showing the gifts from the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Afterwards, we ate at the Cocoa Diner, which I guess is somewhat of a tradition now, mostly because it's open late and has a very recognizable name. I've never bothered to check whether cocoa is actually on the menu there.

On Sunday, we exchanged gifts with my family. My siblings and my brother's wife and son were over at my dad's in the afternoon, and we had lunch with them; and later we had dinner with my mom. I was pretty late getting some of the presents, as I'm a terrible procrastinator. That said, even if I'd bought them early, I'd probably still feel like I was doing last-minute shopping. I received copies of Lin Carter's Dragonrouge (the sequel to Kesrick), Mark S. Smith's The Early History of God, and of Super Mario Wonder. I suspect Beth would be better at that game than I would, but I'll give it a try. My sister also gave us a stuffed cat that wasn't originally intended as a gift, but her cat inexplicably hated it.

We showed it to Nellie, and she seemed pretty indifferent. We rang in the New Year at Beth's mom's house, which didn't involve that much ringing, but Nellie did have bells on her collar.

Last night, we went to see Spamalot, which was a present for me from Beth, along with the soundtrack album. As you probably know, it's Eric Idle's reworking of Monty Python and the Holy Grail into a just as meta-referential Broadway musical. From the little I've read, some of the other Python members were confused by the whole thing, and I know Neil Innes took issue with not getting royalties for the songs he wrote, "Knights of the Round Table," "Brave Sir Robin" and "Run Away" (the latter was cut from the movie, but is in the show). I'm not sure what the royalty situation was for the Finland song, which I understand Michael Palin wrote. I found it very enjoyable, although it seems like most of the best jokes were the ones everybody already knew from the film, and expanding on some of them didn't make them funnier. Some of the adaptations to a different medium worked, however, like the Holy Hand Grenade exposing the killer rabbit's puppeteer, the expanded cast of French stereotypes, and how the Holy Grail was found (which of course it wasn't in the original). It also worked in a lot of other classic Python references, which is understandable. The story was streamlined a bit, with some of the side characters becoming the knights (as opposed to just being played by the same actors). The main new character was the Lady of the Lake, presumably because there weren't any significant women in the movie, and she was played as a total diva. There were a few more topical references as well, including George Santos appearing in a list of famous Jewish people involved with Broadway.

Current Music: Pinataland: The Ballad of John Banvard

Merry Christmas to anyone who celebrates, and I guess anyone who doesn't as well, although maybe you prefer not to be reminded of it! It's weird to think about how Christmas traditionally had twelve days, but for me it's basically over on the first. I've even seen some people doing Twelve Days activities that END on the twenty-fifth. We do still have to exchange gifts with my family around New Year's, though. Since the last time I wrote a life update, we saw the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, got our own, and attended a holiday concert by the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra.

I've already written about most of the stuff we watched this year on WordPress, although there were a few repeat viewings as well, including Rudolph, Frosty, Garfield, the Grinch, Claymation, and Home Alone. Beth got the complete DVD set of Tales from the Darkside for her birthday, so we watched the Christmas episode of that first.

Called "Seasons of Belief," it's about a dad telling his kids (one of whom is Six from Blossom) a story he makes up on the spot about a monster called the Grither, who lives at the North Pole and goes after anyone who says his name. The kids' mom and uncle join in on scaring the jingle bells out of the children, even improvising lyrics about the monster to the tune of "O Come All Ye Faithful." SPOILER AHEAD! It ends with the Grither showing up and killing the parents, the implication being that belief brought it to life. You only ever see his arms, which are gigantic. END SPOILER. Earlier on, the mom mentions that, if kids don't believe in Santa Claus, then their toys will break, which is much more subtle a punishment than being hit with a switch or stuffed in a bag. Tavie and Sean came by on Thursday, and we watched Whoever Slew Auntie Roo, a rewatch for Beth and me. They gave me a DuckTales T-shirt, which reminds me that we still need to watch the newer series.

On Christmas Eve, we saw the Christmas episode of The Odd Couple, "Scrooge Gets an Oscar," where Felix really wants Oscar to play Scrooge in the play he's directing, but Oscar wants nothing to do with it, as he and his ex-wife were married on Christmas Day. Of course he changes his mind after having a Scrooge-themed dream.

We'd tried two other times to go to the Creamy Acres Night of Lights, but Beth's mom was sick the first time, and the second it was sold out. We finally went on Saturday evening. During the pandemic, they changed it from a wagon ride to a drive-thru, but more recently they've had both. I don't really like driving through, though, as the view isn't as good. The wagon takes the same road as the cars. Most of the lights were the same this time, but they're always fun.

The music played during the ride included a Christmas song adapted from the Flintstones theme, even though they could have chosen from a few actual Flintstones holiday songs instead.

Watch on YouTube

They had a giant inflatable Bumble near the entrance, and a Grinch a little further on.

I also noticed some rather sinister-looking decorations inside.

Beth and I tend to sleep late when we don't have to get up for work, although I sometimes find myself waking up and doing something for a little while before trying to get back to sleep. I played a little bit of Animal Crossing, and delivered presents for Jingle, the reindeer who comes to visit for Toy Day. As with Easter and Bunny Day, it's an equivalent of the Christian holiday that only keeps the more secular elements. Santa Claus is mentioned, but doesn't show up.

Anyway, we didn't open our presents until afternoon. Beth gave me tickets to see Spamalot in January, as well as a CD of the original cast recording.

That's something that's likely up my alley, but I hadn't really thought about seeing. Along the same lines, Uncle John gave me a set of Song of Ice and Fire books. I remember starting to read the first one and not being that invested in it, but I'll definitely give it another chance. Then maybe I'll need to watch the TV show. We'll see about that. I'm late to most popular things. Nellie enjoyed playing with the wrapping paper.

She's staying back in New Jersey for the next week. And tomorrow we have work, because we don't do Boxing Day in this country.

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Paper Mario The Origami King Soundtrack: The Ruins of Peach's Castle

I suppose an overview of what Beth and I have done recently would be appropriate right about now. On Wednesday, the last day of November, we went to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for Lightscape, which is where the place has many different lights illuminating the flora, and several art installations, some specifically themed toward the season. They don't often photograph that well, especially as a lot of them keep changing, but I did take some pictures.

Chandeliers? Outdoors? Whatever!
There's also music accompanying many of the installations. Near a giant Moravian star (which I guess is still very tiny compared to actual stars in space), Elton John's "Rocket Man" played on a loop.

One part was the Kaleido Circle, which had, as you could probably guess, a kaleidoscopic pattern surrounding a tree, accompanied by hip-hop music.

Not a Kalidah Circle, fortunately.
One exhibit near the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden is called Antares, which is a star in the constellation that's our birth sign. We ate at the cafe there, where I had a ham sandwich with cheese, mustard, and honey. It was good, although the honey didn't really fit with the other stuff. That was where we heard a song about a guy wanting a piece of pork for Christmas, which fit with the sandwich. They also had hot apple cider.

The following Wednesday, we saw a performance of the Nutcracker by the Brighton Ballet Theater at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we got in late, and missed part of the first act. One particularly noticeable part of this performance was the presence of large animal costumes, first for the Mouse King, then later for some of the dances associated with various nations: a bull for Spain, a tiger for Arabia, a unicorn (or was it a Qilin?) for China, and a bear for Russia. Most of them just stood in the back, but the bear hammed it up a bit. The whole performance felt pretty quick. Speaking of which, we also received a Nutcracker-themed postcard from Jay Davis.

Then on Thursday, there was a Kevin Geeks Out show at Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg, which is kind of annoying to get to.

It included a discussion on Dolly Parton's latest Christmas movies, an Eartha Kitt song about cha-cha heels, a Kindest Cut of the Wonder Woman Christmas episode (which I have seen before), and an edit of Charles Bronson's role in Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus, interspersed with clips from the Death Wish movies. The cha-cha heels song was apparently originally supposed to be performed by Divine, as per his role in Female Trouble, but he died before it could be recorded. The video ends with a guy who tries to steal the shoes being forced to dance uncontrollably, perhaps a reference to Hans Christian Andersen's "The Red Shoes." Tavie won the game Ott or Not, about whether various movies received better IMDB ratings than an Edison film a few seconds long with someone named Fred Ott sneezing. And the final clip crossed over Ott with Santa Claus. Another game involved guessing what a presenter's husband had put in a box, and the winner got what was in a similar box, which was definitely NOT the same item.

We brought Nellie to our apartment last night, and so far she's mostly been hiding. I feel bad for bringing her to a new environment, even though that was always the plan. A lot of noises have startled her. She has come out and played a bit, but I don't have any real evidence that she's been eating or drinking, so I'm worried about that.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: They Might Be Giants: Music Jail

I guess the first thing I should mention is that we sort of have a new cat, and I say "sort of" because she's not living with us yet. Beth's mom got a kitten from her sister's farm, intending to give her to us, but we should kitten-proof our apartment before bringing her to Brooklyn. Anyway, I named her Nellie, and so far she mostly seems interested in running around and playing. She's very active, and hasn't yet shown much interest in just sitting with people. She doesn't seem afraid of anybody, though. I feel bad that she wants to play with the dogs, but they're not interested.
Nellie 1.jpg

Beth and I both had our birthdays last week. On the day after hers, we had a pretty busy day, visiting the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, eating at a cafe, attending a lecture at Green-Wood Cemetery, and seeing a movie.

The lecture was about cremation, including its history and how it was done at that location. It's been standard in India for ages, but it took some time to catch elsewhere, including in the Americas. Even though the Pope has said it's okay, it's apparently still not popular in Catholic families. There was a time when there was a theological debate over whether bodily resurrection would be possible with ashes. Now it's probably just a matter of tradition. They also mentioned that it's not very energy efficient, and involves burning fossil fuels. I don't see any reason to preserve my body after I'm dead, but I guess that's more a decision for anyone still alive who might care than for me. I haven't yet made my post about the movie Thanksgiving, but I should have it up soon. I didn't do anything on my birthday except going out to eat at the Olive Garden; I feel we went out to do stuff so often in October that I was a little burned out, and didn't have any ideas anyway.
Birthday Stuff.jpg

Presents I received included two Carl Barks collections, the newest Belle and Sebastian album, and the book Fight, Magic, Items by Aidan Moher, which is about Japanese role-playing video games from a Western perspective.

Beth also bought me the Switch remake of Super Mario RPG while we were at Target. I finished the original back in the early 2000s, and I remember it being frustrating in parts, but I'm sure it'll be fun to revisit when I get around to it. I kind of got stuck in I Am Setsuna, so I've put that aside for the time being. And I started Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, but haven't gotten very far as of yet. It's cute, but I've had a little trouble with the battle system. And I'm still playing Animal Crossing, and I did the Turkey Day thing on Thursday. I realized I hadn't planted any white pumpkins on my island, so that's been taken care of. I also got "K.K. Birthday," which I think is the last of the K.K. Slider songs in the game, but I don't think there's any reward for that.

Super Mario Wonder looks fascinating, but as much as I love Mario, I'm not great at platform games.

Beth's mom made Thanksgiving dinner for us, and we were originally going to go to Creamy Acres for the Christmas hayride on Friday, but she wasn't feeling well. We'll try to do it some other weekend. We did have lunch with my mom, sister, sister-in-law, and nephew today. I've done a little bit of Christmas shopping, but not that much.

Current Music: Tori Amos: Black Swan

Halloween is over now, and I hope you're enjoying all the saints and all the souls. It's gotten cooler after some really warm days for October. I like not having to wear a jacket, but eighty degrees (Fahrenheit, of course) is just too much at this time of year. Anyway, here are a few things Beth and I went to recently.

Farm Pumpkin.jpg

On Friday, we visited the Queens County Farm Museum, which is not just a museum but an operating farm in Queens, dating back to 1697.
Farmhouse Plaque.jpg

They had a few fall events, including a hayride and a corn maze. The former was short, and not haunted or anything, just a ride around the farm. The latter, known as the Amazing Maize Maze, was only the second one we'd been to, the other a smaller one in Delaware.
Amazing Maize Maze.jpg

The way it was set up was that there were nine different mailboxes to find, each of which had a piece of a rough map of the maze. It was frustrating, because I could sometimes see the boxes, but not know how to get to them. Don't kids do these sometimes? We started around 4:30, and it officially closed at 5:30, at which point we'd only found maybe six of the mailboxes. While trying to make it back out again, though, we somehow came across the remaining ones. I suppose the trick is to not look for them. We saw several animals, too.

I also bought two apple cider doughnuts while there, and was hoping to get a small bottle of apple cider, but we didn't have time after the maze. I did already buy some cider at the grocery store a few days earlier, though.

Eerie Happenings.jpg

On Saturday, we saw a Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra performance. We had season tickets to these in the past, but this is the first one we'd attended in a while. It was called Eerie Happenings, and had spooky music, including Mendelssohn's Chorus of Druids and Witches from Die erste Walpurgisnacht (which is actually at the end of April), Dukas' "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," and several Dies Irae pieces. The conductor joked that he couldn't mention Mickey Mouse or Fantasia by name. The Dies Irae is a Gregorian chant about the end of the world quoted in a lot of other stuff, and they played versions by Mozart and Verdi. Beth asked which one I liked better, and I preferred the latter, as it was more exciting. Liszt's Totentanz also uses it, but in a different style. After the show, we went to a place called 8-Bit Bites, of which there are a few locations in the city. It has a fun aesthetic, with lamps shaped like Super Mario question blocks, and a door that makes the sound of Mario growing bigger when it's opened.
8 Bit Bites.jpg

There are a few different machines with multiple games on them, but we didn't play any. I had a chicken sandwich and a berry milkshake with pieces of Crunch Berries in it.

On actual Halloween, we saw a comedy show at the Bell House hosted by Joe Pera and Dan Licata. I didn't know what to expect from it, as all I really knew was that Pera was a comedian known for his slow, sincere delivery. Dan's style was rather more abrasive, and they did several bits together. I think interesting delivery was kind of a theme with some of the other comedians as well, although I'm not sure if that's part of the act or just how they talk. Joe dressed as Black Adam, and Dan wore a witch's hat. A few people in the audience for both this and the concert wore costumes, but neither of us did. Joe had a fairly lengthy discussion about lamb meatballs with a guy dressed as David S. Pumpkins. Before the show, there were kids going trick-or-treating at various businesses, which I knew was a thing, but it just wasn't what my neighborhood was like growing up.

Current Music: Erin McKeown: La Petite Mort

It's been a pretty busy week, and a pretty rainy one as well. On Monday, Beth and I went to see The State perform live at the Palladium in Times Square, which I believe is where they filmed their show back in the 90s. Eight of the eleven are part of the Breakin' Hearts and Dippin' Balls Tour, and the new performance was a mix of sketches from the show with some new material, or sometimes old stuff repurposed for a new context, like the sketch about a college dorm safety lecture from people with tape on their faces instead became a talk about theater safety, Barry and Levon tried to sell reverse mortgages, and an expanded "Froggy Jamboree" gives the characters a dark backstory.

Older sketches included Louie at the Last Supper, the mailman who delivered tacos instead of mail, the Bearded Men of Space Station 11, and "Porcupine Racetrack," which was the closer.

While changing scenes, they played some bits from the CBS special and a pre-State project where they reenacted weird stories people told them. Since Michael Showalter was one of the members who wasn't there, they made a joke out of getting an audience member to play Doug.

Before the show, we ate at Jollibee for the first time, and I liked the chicken and the peach and mango pie. I wonder what their spaghetti is like. Beth saw the show again on Tuesday, while I stayed home to watch Clone Wars episodes (I've now finished watching the sixth season), play Animal Crossing, and write a post about monster shamans. Less exciting, to be sure, but I've come to appreciate evenings where I don't have to do anything, even if that thing is purely for fun.

Thursday was the fall event at Green-Wood Cemetery that I think we've been to twice before, but the name isn't always the same. This time, it was Nightfall: Danse Macabre. I can't say it was much different from before, but a lot of what you see depends on timing. Some performances repeat with only short breaks in between, while others are only at specific times. We saw fewer of the circus performances than in previous years, although we did see some fire eaters and someone playing what sounded like music from the Legend of Zelda soundtrack on a harp.

There were two different theremin performers, and a shadow puppetry performance about a girl who befriends some crows.

As usual, getting around was a little difficult, as it was dark and the paths at the cemetery twist all over the place anyway. There were lanterns marking the proper roads, but it was still hard to figure out which way we were going, even with a map.

On Friday night, we went to see the Middle Aged Dad Jam Band at City Winery. The band has David Wain on drums and Ken Marino on lead vocals, plus some of their friends and collaborators. Craig Wedren, who did music for The State and related projects (and is married to Thomas Lennon's sister), plays guitar, David's son Henry saxophone, and Amy Miles does backing vocals and some percussion. It's all very casual, but still sounds really good, and some of the people involved are professional musicians even if the leads aren't. They play covers (mostly from the sixties through the eighties, although a few later songs made their way in) and make a lot of corny jokes. They also had several guests who did a song or two, including Paul Rudd playing Gerry Rafferty (it didn't make a whole lot of sense even in context), David Yazbek, Kevin Allison, and, most exciting for me, John Flansburgh, who sang "Born to Run."

Amy introduced him as a friend of hers, and I actually was first aware of her because she and Flansburgh's wife Robin Goldwasser were in a band, The Last Car, that opened for They Might Be Giants a few times. I believe David met her on the set of Wet Hot American Summer; she was married to actor A.D. Miles at the time, although they've since divorced. In terms of connections, it's also interesting that Yazbek did a song from an upcoming musical about Elmer McCurdy, who was already the subject of one by frequent TMBG collaborator Brian Dewan. I've heard that Joe Lo Truglio had played Rafferty before, and that Weird Al has played with the band. It was a surprisingly long show, about three hours long with one fifteen-minute intermission. And it was mostly standing room (there were seats, but they cost a lot more), so it wasn't too kind on my feet. I also had my backpack with me because I brought it to work, but I might have used a smaller bag that day if I'd remembered about the standing.

I find myself not wanting to use Twitter that much these days, even though I still have one-off thoughts that seem well-suited to that format. It just seems like nobody reads my tweets, and my feed is a lot less interesting. I don't think Elon Musk directly messed up my personal experience, but his general toxic, chaotic management has driven a lot of people away. Or maybe it's just my own perception that's changed. The change from the cute bird to a letter of the alphabet doesn't help matters; it just seems a lot less friendly now. I have a Bluesky account, but I'm not following that many people (and even fewer are following me), so it's kind of slow. I've also read some stuff recently on how Google (and probably other sites as well) has basically sold out to advertisers and donors with particular agendas that you don't even necessarily get results for the words you actually typed. Apparently you're more likely to get popular results that are sort of related to your search. It seems similar to how YouTube and apparently Tiktok have algorithms that constantly suggest related things that are selected more for being popular than relevant, and are sometimes actively dangerous. It appears to be how Musk wants Twitter to operate, too. I'm sure that, at times, it's just the computer program not working very well, but I think there's an undertone to the whole concept of not trusting the user to seek out these things themselves.

I feel like there's a general trend on the Internet of homogenization, like you don't see as many personal websites anymore. Of course, a lot of these sites were terrible and boring, but they were still personalized in a way that things really aren't these days. This makes it easier, in that users don't have to learn even the tiny bit of HTML I did in order to put stuff online, so it's not all bad. There's somewhat of a pattern of increased corporate control, but not always in ways I can specifically identify, so it's more of a general feeling on my part. And there's the current obsession with the word "content," as if writing, art, research, music, etc. are all just commodities these days.

Personally, when I make posts on my WordPress, I do so casually, but I want the information to be accurate and fairly thorough. Too often, I'll do a Google search and it will result in the Wikipedia page, some other sites that just copy Wikipedia, stubs on wikis, and unsourced conspiratorial stuff. I realize I could do some more thorough research, as I did learn something about that in school, but it's probably not worth it for a short post that will get maybe ten readers. I just feel that some of this can't be so obscure as to barely register on the whole Internet.

Current Music: Magnetic Fields: I've Got a Date with Jesus

Last weekend was our trip to Pennsylvania. The original plan was to drive to Pittsburgh on Friday, go to Kennywood on Saturday, and then to Knoebels on Sunday. The thing is, Knoebels was only open for four hours on Sunday. We'd checked it before, but got confused. So instead, we went to Knoebels on Friday, when it was also only open four hours, but late hours rather than early ones. It was also raining on and off all evening. Still, we managed to ride most of what we'd wanted to. It was the first time either of us had ridden a Roll-O-Plane, which they called the Satellite.

They've also installed a Rock-O-Plane, but they haven't trained the employees to operate it as of yet. This is something Beth has been looking into recently, and she told me that these and the Loop-O-Plane are three different kinds of old rides, but the Roll-O-Plane is sometimes called the Salt and Pepper Shakers. I'm not sure how that name makes sense, but I guess the "shake" part is accurate enough. We also rode the Flying Turns, which is sort of a combination wooden roller coaster and bobsled track. On the sled parts, it rides up pretty high on the sides. They had scales set up to make sure the cars balanced out properly. I forget which ride it was that made me feel a little queasy. Beth said the Impulse bothered her, but I was fine with that one. The Antique Cars had a special setup for Halloween, as did the Pioneer Train.

They call this time of year "Hallofun," and while I probably would have included the W, nobody asked me.

Kennywood is 125 years old this year, and has a few attractions that are billed as the last of their kind. The Turtle was closed, but we did ride the Kangaroo for the first time. The gimmick to it is that part of its cycle goes over a ramp to produce a hopping effect. It also makes springing noises.

Noah's Ark is a walkthrough that's also the last of its kind in operation, and we did the Halloween version that was entirely in the dark with people jumping out at you.

I felt they let us in too close to the people in front of us, so most of the scares were spoiled. On the other hand, we could follow their voices, so it was a mixed blessing. Ghostwood Estate is a haunted ride that doesn't only run during Phantom Fall Fest (their name for the Halloween season), where you're supposed to shoot at targets to scare off ghosts. I wasn't very good at it. There's a guy who guides you through it named Lord Kenneth Ghostwood, but did he have that name when he was still alive? There's a new ride called Spinvasion, which has an alien theme and cars that swing while the whole thing spins around.

We walked through two of the haunted attractions, the zombie-filled Kennyville Cemetery and Malice in Wonderland Unleashed. What we didn't get to do was ride the Auto Race, which broke down while we were in line.

They had a lot of Halloween decorations, and these prizes at one of the games kind of reminded me of Dragon Quest.

I guess there's nothing particularly DQ-related about spherical creatures, but that's where my mind went.

I had originally wanted to drive maybe halfway home after this, but since it was an exhausting day, we instead stayed in Altoona and went most of the way on Sunday. We did stop on Saturday night at a place called Dean's Diner, after ruling out an understaffed Denny's and a closed Applebee's. I overheard a kid at the diner mention that there was a shooting in Indiana, which is where I went to college. We ate on Saturday afternoon at a cute restaurant called Fox's Diner, which served only breakfast on weekends.

And on Sunday, we had a meal at a surprisingly crowded Perkins. And I guess that's just about it for amusement parks this year, although we do still have tickets to Hersheypark.

Current Music: Decemberists: The Engine Driver

On Saturday, 16 September, Beth and I made our third annual trip to Dorney Park, where they had just started their Halloween thing. None of the waits were bad, but they did close some of the rides early, and we hadn't been aware of that ahead of time. They also closed off some of the paths through the park after dark, and there were a lot of kids running around recklessly. I don't think we rode anything new this time, except for the Cedar Creek Cannonball, which wasn't running on our previous two trips.

I might have ridden it as a kid, but I can't remember for sure. The park has two train rides, but I've never been there when both were operational. I did get a little sick, not seriously so, but my stomach felt uncomfortable. I think one of the worst rides for my general health is the Revolution. They had a lot of advertising for the Iron Menace, which is scheduled to open next year.

Last Saturday, we visited the Creamy Acres Night of Terror again.

The Moon was pretty cooperative. I understand we missed the Harvest Moon by one day.
It was mostly the same as last time, with a hayride and three walkthroughs, including one with 3-D glasses. The ground was muddy, but that wasn't anyone's fault. They had a flood warning in New York the day before, but fortunately Beth and I were both working from home. We posed for some pictures with a skeleton, who was pretty big, but not quite in Gashadokuro territory.

We also went to a Spirit Halloween, where the main things I wanted to photograph were costumes with off-brand names.

I don't even really understand the Serpent Queen, since I'm pretty sure "Medusa" and "Gorgon" aren't trademarked. We bought some T-shirts there, but haven't worn them yet.

Monday was Kevin Geeks Out at the Nitehawk in Prospect Park, which is a lot easier to get to than the one in Williamsburg. It was on fast food, and included a good mix of stuff. Emily Menez talked about vegetarian options at fast food places (there aren't many) and compared them to ones in fiction. Michael Williams did a pre-recorded bit on Australian fast food, and how it's common to have beetroot on burgers there. Sounds gross to me, but I usually get fast food sandwiches without any of the vegetables anyway. KFC in Australia tried having cartoon mascots for a brief time, a fox and a chicken hawk with Southern (American) accents.

And I really don't know why Burger King is called Hungry Jack's there. Audrey Lazaro discussed Jollibee's and its mascots. Mr. Yum struck me as being similar to Wimpy, with his suit and tie and association with hamburgers.

They kept the character, but made him younger and less formal.

Wimpy does have his own restaurant, although I've never been to one. Popeyes, the chicken place, was apparently not named after the sailor, but did use him in advertising up until 2012.

Watch on YouTube

Co-host Camila Jones did a match-up between pizza chain founders. Burlesque dancer Perse Fanny did a McDonald's themed striptease. And Max Bank did a bit as advertising executive Donny Deutsch, whom I'd heard of because he used to have a talk show on CNBC for some reason, which included a part about coming up with Uncle O'Grimacey. The Kindest Cut this time was the 1978 movie Starhops, which not only has a title presumably inspired by Star Wars, but even opens with a parody of its crawl. There was a bit about how Clara Peller from the Wendy's "Where's the Beef?" commercials did a rap with Coyote McCloud that seemed very similar to an earlier song using Rodney Dangerfield clips, and Adam Bernstein recorded his own parody for this show. And Kevin made a non-canonical but valid point about how Ronald McDonald is Grimace's best friend, but Grimace isn't Ronald's. The Grimazuzu picture is from a bit that was never fully developed, but I have written about both Grimace and Pazuzu pretty recently. We didn't actually eat fast food that day. The grilled cheese sandwich I had at a nearby café was made pretty quickly, but I don't think it counts. But then, Pizza Hut qualifying must be a pretty recent thing, as I remember having pretty long waits there when I was a kid. Or maybe they just felt long because I was impatient.

Current Music: They Might Be Giants: Hell Hotel

We visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden the Tuesday before last, and Clementon Park that Saturday. There wasn't much new at the former, but they did have a sign about how inaccurate the term "horsechestnuts" is.

So much of the latter is the water park now, and we didn't go on anything there, so it left us with only a few rides.

The Tilt-A-Whirl and the Hellcat weren't running, but I didn't mind that with the latter, as it's very rough.

The sign does not lie.
Some other people at the park were obsessed with the eagle at the top of the roller coaster, and I don't know how long it's been there.

We rode the Ring of Fire for the first time, and it was the first time I'd ridden a Super Loops sort of ride at all. I think I first saw one of them in the movie Big, and wondered if it was like a coaster loop without the coaster. I guess it's a little different, because it builds up momentum before going all the way around. While it didn't burn, burn, burn, it was uncomfortable.

The C.P. Huntington train was taken out of service a few times, although we did ride it twice. I get the impression they had to overhaul the engine, as it's now noisy and smells of gasoline, and it was sometimes difficult for the engineer to get it started. And I rode both the zebra and the dragon on the carousel.

They serve Pizza Hut there now, and I hadn't had that in quite a while. Do they even have old-style Pizza Huts anymore? The last one I ate at was an Express, and while the food seems to still be the same, I miss the stained glass lamps and the strangely dim light.

This past Saturday, we visited Long Beach Island in New Jersey for the first time. I actually had a provisional job offer there once, but I figured it was too far away, and there was no guarantee that the job would last anyway. According to Beth, around where she grew up in South Jersey, people going to the beach said they were going "down the shore," which I can't recall hearing when I was young. We first visited Seaside Heights, which has a boardwalk and a little amusement park called Casino Pier. While there, we rode Xolo Loca, Pirate's Hideaway, the Ferris Wheel, Hydrus, and the Skyride.

Xolo Loca, named after the Xoloitzcuintle dog, is a small roller coaster with spinning cars.

I thought Pirate's Hideaway might be a dark ride, and I guess it is in a general sense, but it's really just a coaster that's mostly indoors. They also had an odd assortment of statues, including Paul Bunyan, a hobo alligator, a chicken on steroids, and what looks like Mighty Mouse with his face erased and then drawn back on.

As funny as the writing on the hobogator is, I can't help but think some kids would WANT to be bitten.
You can't actually get onto the beach there without a pass. I didn't have any particular desire to do so anyway, but monetizing just walking somewhere is kind of scummy. The other place we visited was Jenkinson's Boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach, which is more geared towards kids.

There, we rode the train (also a C.P. Huntington) and the carousel, as well as a coaster called Tidal Wave, which was largely the same as Xolo Loca, but had a beach theme instead of a Mexican one. Both boardwalks had a lot of arcades, focusing more on games where you can win prizes than ones you just play.

Spider-Mario says, "With great-a power-ups comes great-a responsibility!"
There are several games called Cut 2 Win or something similar that involve cutting down a big stuffed animal in a case, and I don't think I'd seen that kind before.

They had a lot of stuffed seagulls with food, too.

We ate the Rainbow Diner in Brick (home of the late Rachel Cosgrove Payes) afterwards, and my obsession with kids' menus where the foods are named after cartoon characters continues. Shouldn't the Super Mario be the spaghetti, or maybe mushrooms? I associate Snoopy with pizza and cookies, although the Turtles are even more pizza-obsessed. Diners don't often have pizza, though. And clownfish eat plankton and other tiny organisms. The one thing they got correct is that Donald Duck really does seem to eat a lot of turkey, despite being a bird himself.

Current Mood: a little on the warm side
Current Music: Sparks: Pineapple

Two weekends ago was Monster-Mania. The problem is that we usually spend most of our time there at the question-and-answer panels, but due to the writers' and actors' strikes, people weren't allowed to discuss their work. They could still be there and sign autographs, but there weren't any panels. Beth had already paid for it, though, so we still went, but didn't spend a lot of time. We walked around the dealer rooms and bought some drawings from an artist named Jen Tracy. She got a haunted one, and I got Tik-Tok.

I also thought her Medusa drawing, which we didn't buy, was really cool. And we watched part of a game show called Curse Your Luck, a play on Press Your Luck with horror movie characters instead of Whammies.

There was a trivia part, but it was difficult for the audience to play along. The screen was too small to read, and the hosts didn't finish the questions if a contestant answered them before they were done reading. We did learn that Friendly's has the mini mozzarella sticks again, at least at the location we went to, although Beth says they taste different than they did before. It's hard to tell, as it's been so long, but I think I got what she meant.

This past Wednesday, we went to Playland, where we both felt kind of sick after going on some pretty tame rides. Beth swears by motion sickness pills, and thinks the ones I bought just weren't up to the task. I also bought more pizza than we could finish, because I wasn't sure how big the personal ones were. And I'm usually capable of eating a lot of pizza. But anyway, it was pretty fun, but there wasn't anything new, although I think it was the first time we rode Catch a Wave. There used to be something quite similar at Clementon Park, where it was called the Falling Star.

I mentioned last year that the Derby Racer seems slower now, and one of the employees confirmed that, although he didn't know the reason why that happened. His guess was that there was an injury. I also mentioned the Old Mill, actually the first thing we rode on our first visit to the park, but I didn't talk about the sign that says it has a "dark and forbidding atmosphere."

I guess things have changed since 1929, and dragons aren't as scary when they audibly creak anyway.

I always like to take pictures from the Ferris Wheel, and I guess it's a good thing I'm calm enough about it now, because I used to get really nervous when that kind of ride (not this particular one) would stop at the top to load more people. I'm still kind of scared I might drop something, though.

We've been watching the new Futurama episodes, and from what I've seen and the descriptions of the ones that have yet to air, it kind of seems like they're overdoing the commentary on current events. They've always done that, but not quite that often. I'll wait until I've actually seen the entire season to pass judgment, though. Also, I downloaded the Steam version of Final Fantasy X some years ago and decided to check it out this weekend. There's a guy who ends up 1000 years in the future and befriends a guy voiced by John DiMaggio, which is pretty familiar. I'll probably write more about the game once I've gotten a little further into it or it becomes too frustrating for me to want to continue, as FF8 was.

Finally, tomorrow is Ozma's birthday. How are you going to celebrate?

Current Music: Ditty Bops: The Weeds Are Winning

Our second trip to California was primarily for OzCon, but we did a few other things as well. Beth and I flew in last Thursday, and I rented a car through Turo, which we'd heard about from Stephanie. It was my first time using it, and it's weird, because you're just renting some other person's car. For some reason, that makes me more nervous than getting one from a rental place, even though it's cheaper. I'm not even sure how insurance works; they tried to sell me some kind of extra protection, but since I couldn't figure out exactly what it entailed, I declined it. It worked out all right, although the car wasn't great on hills, of which there are a lot more in the Los Angeles area than where we live. We got in pretty early to have the chance to do some stuff before the convention, but we really didn't. I did stop to do a bit of laundry at a place called Laundry 2000, but we couldn't find anything else that had convenient parking, and we were both tired. A few hours later, we ate at a diner called Norm's, an area chain that I'd never heard of. While driving back to Pomona, we crossed a street called Lark Ellen Avenue, which was weird as there was a character with that name in The Mysterious Chronicles of Oz. I looked it up, and it's the nickname of an opera singer, Ellen Beach Yaw, who lived in the area. On Sunday after the convention, we drove to downtown LA and went out to eat with Stephanie. Her original plan was to eat at a fancy place on a rooftop, but since it was so hot out, we ended up just getting drinks there and eating at the IHOP nearby. Stephanie said she hadn't been to one of those in a long time, but she liked it. As someone who likes to eat what's familiar, I'm a fan of chain restaurants, although I get why people want to try local things when on vacation. I was glad to see that Denny's is apparently still thriving in the area, even though we didn't go to any of them. Around here, a lot of them have closed, and the open ones no longer serve food all day.

On Monday, we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain, as we'd been planning to do on our last trip until I forgot my glasses and couldn't drive there. It's built on an actual mountain, although it's not as vertical in its layout as Universal Studios. I understand it's also the Thrill Capital of the World. It's been very hot recently, and I'm sure that wasn't good for us when we were outside all day. I don't usually get sick from roller coasters, but I did a few times on that day. And, as it's a Six Flags park, they definitely emphasized the coasters. The only non-coaster things we rode were the carousel and the train.

Their carousel doesn't have its own music, which is kind of disappointing. Since it's a Warner Bros. park, they should at least have a particular song playing when it isn't running.

The first thing we rode, the New Revolution, appears in the movie Rollercoaster, and both that and Twisted Colossus are in National Lampoon's Vacation.

It was just the Colossus back then, though; the Twisted part is due to a 2015 remodel that added steel to the wooden frame. There are some steampunk-type things in and outside the waiting area.

We also rode X2 (formerly just X; did Elon Musk name it?), Viper, Tatsu, Full Throttle, Scream, and Wonder Woman Flight of Courage.

Viper was the same as the one they used to have at Great Adventure, which was really rough, and was removed some years ago.

The name of Tatsu made me think of Shredder's henchman in the first two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, but it's really just Japanese for a dragon. It's like Superman Ultimate Flight at Great Adventure in that the seats turn you into a position with your back parallel to the track, but I found it more intense. The ride's slogan is "fly at the speed of fear," similar to "travel at the speed of fright" for the now-defunct Big Bad Wolf at Busch Gardens in Virginia.

Wonder Woman is a single-rail coaster.

A lot of them were running only one train at a time, which was frustrating despite fairly short lines. There were a few others that were either closed or we just didn't have the time and/or energy to ride. It's kind of confusing that Six Flags parks will use similar names for different rides. At Great Adventure, there's a Wonder Woman pendulum ride, while one of the coasters at Magic Mountain that was closed was Superman: Escape from Krypton. Yeah, there's more to the names to distinguish them, but still. The tickets we bought included parking, unlimited refills on drinks throughout the day, and food every hour and a half. We didn't really take advantage of that last one, due to time constraints and several food places being closed, but I did get pizza at two different locations.

We're back home now, and it's still strangely lonely with the cats gone. I went back to work yesterday, and I've been feeling kind of awkward there recently for a few reasons I don't want to go into just now, and that probably don't really matter in the long run. I did learn that we'll be able to work from home two days a week starting later this month, although it's different days every week. The problem is that the work laptop has such a tiny screen, so it's hard to switch from one thing to another. Maybe I could hook it up to my computer monitor. I'm also wondering if I should just stop using Twitter. As far as I can tell, changing its name to something really dumb hasn't changed the interface or anything, but there just doesn't seem to be a lot of interaction there anymore, except from the all too numerous spambots. Mark Zuckerberg is probably even worse than Musk in some ways, but he's more behind the scenes, so I don't have to think about how much of a jerk he is every time I open Facebook. Twitter was just so convenient when I had one-off thoughts, though. Musk is like Donald Trump, not just in that they're both bigots, but that they presumably have enough money that they could just live a life of leisure, but instead insist on playing businessman. I guess they crave the power and attention. And I'm still not sure how constantly making things less convenient for users is supposed to make money. It's probably related to how stock prices apparently have very little to do with whether companies are producing anything, but just about the whims of investors; and how every other ad online is about a vague concept instead of a tangible thing.

Current Mood: melancholy
Current Music: Human League: WXJL Tonight

There was a Sparks concert at the Hollywood Bowl with They Might Be Giants opening, so Beth and I made the trip to Los Angeles (the one in South California, not the one in South Patagonia). Fortunately, we were able to stay with our friend Stephanie, who put us up and put up with us. Her dog Chelsea was also very friendly, and it was nice to have a pet around after losing ours. When we got in on Thursday, after sleeping for a while, we went to a place called Vidiots for a screening of Gigantic, the TMBG documentary. I hadn't actually seen it straight through since when it came out in 2002. It's a little weird, because it kind of skips over most of the nineties in terms of the band's history, or at least feels like it does. Afterwards, director A.J. Schnack was there with Johns Linnnell and Flansburgh to ask some questions.

They mentioned how Mink Car, the album they were making when a lot of the footage was filmed, was kind of a lost album that had apparently gone out of print. It came out on 11 September 2001, and the label that released it went out of business not long afterwards. Flans said something about the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Swatch Watch campaign being the major turning point in the music world, and the Sid and Marty Krofft special with the Brady Bunch kids. And he mentioned The Truth About Cats and Dogs being the median between good and bad movies. I've never seen it, but I do remember thinking Janeane Garofalo was more attractive than Uma Thurman at the time, although that may not still be the case today. They had done a long interview earlier that day, so they didn't take audience questions, but I couldn't think of anything to ask anyway. The next day, we did karaoke. Beth sang Sparks' "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us," I sang Frank Black's "Headache" and the Monkees' "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?", and we both did the Human League's "Don't You Want Me" with the genders switched. I didn't think that it would have been appropriate to do Frank's "Los Angeles" instead. On Saturday, we had brunch with three of Stephanie's friends, who were pretty elegant. I had the berry French Toast.

The place we went had its own hens, and I tried to get some pictures, but they didn't come out that well.

And in the evening, we saw Pee-wee's Big Adventure at the Alamo Drafthouse, the first time I'd seen it on the big screen. They had a replica of Pee-wee's bike in the lobby, so finally it really IS at the Alamo, or at least was for a while.

Sunday was the day of the show, and we had box seats, yet it was still the farthest Beth has been from the stage at a Sparks concert. TMBG opened with "Damn Good Times," which had been in my head before that, as it mentions karaoke.

The trio of horn players joined them for a few songs, including "When Will You Die," in which Linnell worked "the horns" into the lyrics about the band.

That's not the song they're playing here, though.
During the improvisation at the end of "Spy," Linnell did a bit that sounded like it was from a commercial for a record of 1930s music. There were no surprises in the set, but I understand they'd been playing "Authenticity Trip" at recent shows, and that mentions the Hollywood Hills, so it would have made sense in that respect. Of course, it's also pretty obscure, being on an album that I don't think was released to stores. Every show of the Sparks tour has the same setlist, although they cut out two songs this time, specifically "The Toughest Girl in Town" and "Escalator." Stephanie mentioned that they're very strict about curfews at outdoor venues in the area. Interestingly, Russell did do a longer introduction for "We Go Dancing."

The Maels talked about how they'd seen the Beatles play at the Bowl when they were kids. It's interesting that the backing band for Sparks is kind of hidden in the background. Russell does introduce them, but they're not showcased. The Johns give a lot more attention to their band, although they still don't generally participate in the creative process...except on the children's albums, for some reason. A few people left the show early, including the other people in our box and the ones in the next box over. It's an unusual venue in the sense that they let you bring in food. Beth bought some Sparks souvenirs that hadn't been sold at other shows on the tour, plus a TMBG Hollywood sign T-shirt and a Flood tote bag. I got some Flood socks, so now all I need are some Flood pants.

Our original plan was to go to Magic Mountain on Monday, but that's difficult to get to without driving, and I had forgotten to bring my glasses. So we went to Universal Studios instead. I had wanted to see Super Nintendo World, and it does look really cool, but it's very small.

Most of the individual themed areas at the park are pretty small, but especially that one; and there really aren't too many rides in the place. The first thing we rode was the Simpsons Ride, a motion simulator with a narrative about Sideshow Bob trying to kill the family at Krustyland, and then elsewhere in Springfield.

In the line for the ride, TV screens show clips from various episodes, most of them related to amusement parks, plus a few bits recorded specifically for the ride. There do seem to be a surprising number of theme parks in the Springfield area, although Itchy & Scratchy Land is a few days' drive away according to its debut episode. There's a reference to how the Simpsons Ride replaced the Back to the Future one, with Professor Frink going back in time to try to stop Krusty from buying Doc Brown's lab, and Christopher Lloyd did the voice. The Mummy ride is a roller coaster with a lot of stuff to see, and at one point little tentacles grab at your feet, while Jurassic World is a log flume with dinosaurs, and the Transformers ride shakes you around a lot. I thought the voice for Wheelie sounded like Rob Paulsen as Yakko Warner, but apparently it's really Tom Kenney. That one requires glasses, presumably so you can see more than meets the eye. It's funny how many rides there and at the Disney parks have narratives about the ride going wrong. The only ride in the Nintendo area was the Mario Kart one, and it malfunctioned when we were close to getting on, although we did eventually get to ride. It was fun, although rides that are also games can be a little overwhelming. They put a LOT of work into the decorations you see when you're in line, starting with Yoshi's Island stuff and then making its way into Bowser's Castle.

I'd previously seen pictures of the bookshelves, which have many interesting titles. Who knew the Koopa King was that avid of a reader?

There were games in the Nintendo area you could play for an extra fee, mostly geared towards kids, but we didn't participate in that. A lot of Super Nintendo World kind of looked like one of those clocks with a bunch of stuff happening, in that everything moves around in a preset pattern. I wouldn't have minded getting a picture with Princess Peach, but our timing didn't work out. We did, however, get to meet Scooby-Doo, and with hardly any line.

Turns out it was really the guy from the amusement park.
Aren't the Hanna-Barbera characters now owned by Warner Brothers? I'm sure there are all kinds of complex licensing deals involved. The Simpsons are now a Disney property, but that didn't happen until some years after the ride opened. I remember when Scooby was at Kings Dominion in Virginia back in my childhood. We didn't realize that the studio lot tour ended at 8:15, so we missed that, and it was one of the things that interested me the most. I was less excited about the Harry Potter area, as it's hard not to think about J.K. Rowling's bigotry, but we did go on the two rides there. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is a virtual reality thing with appearances from many of the actors in the movies, and it was the roughest thing we rode.

The other, Flight of the Hippogriff, is a short roller coaster. For some reason, the train you ride in is made to look like wicker, which is pretty cool. Beth got a T-shirt with a Chain Chomp on it; while I bought some Mario Kart boxers and magnets, and a Bowser keychain. And I got a sunburn on the back of my neck. I understand it's even easier to get burned in Southern California than it is where we live, as there are hardly any clouds. Where's Lakitu when you need him?

We're back home now, but we'll be going to California again soon, as the events we wanted to attend there were too far apart. The next trip is for OzCon, but we'll also try to visit Magic Mountain.

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: They Might Be Giants: Authenticity Trip

It's been a trying week, but there are a few things I did not too long ago that I wanted to discuss. Beth and I went to the Mermaid Parade on Coney Island on Saturday, 17 June. I have a bunch of pictures of it at Facebook and Instagram. I've occasionally had someone who was in the parade reply to pictures of themselves, and this time it happened with a woman who rode in a wheelbarrow pushed by a clown. She did a performance the whole time, and apparently fell out at one point.

There was also someone with a car made largely of balloons with a bike in the middle, which she had trouble steering. Beth pointed out that it had a distinctive balloon smell.

Speaking of stuff you can inflate, I was kind of fascinated by the giant beach ball on a string.

A few different bands played Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody," and I have to wonder if that was coordinated ahead of time.

There were several lobsters and a few different Ursulas, and a walrus who interacted with the crowd.

Walrus don't need no chicanery.
We were considering getting Nathan's afterwards, but instead we got hot dogs, shrimp, and clams at another place on Surf Avenue. Then we got caught in a flash rain while eating, even though it hadn't rained at all during the parade. And we rode a few rides at Deno's Wonder Wheel Park.

That same weekend was Father's Day and Juneteenth, which we both got off from work despite being white. But then, we also get off what's now called both Columbus and Indigenous People's Day, and we're neither indigenous nor Italian. Beth got wrist surgery that Wednesday, and I had to pick her up from the hospital. The following week, she went to several Sparks shows, but I only joined her for one, as did her Uncle John. This was at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, near Philadelphia, and Russell kept calling it "Philadelphia adjacent." They play the same set at every show, and it includes a lot of stuff from their new album. I'm glad they kept in "Shopping Mall of Love," which is one of the few where Ron gets up from the keyboard and has lines.

They're all spoken, but still.

Yeah.
He also still dances during the instrumental part in "The Number One Song in Heaven."

An old one they brought back for this tour is "Beaver O'Lindy," which switches between quiet waltz-style verses and a loud chorus. Russell is still quite active, and moves around a lot.

We'll be seeing them again later this month, with They Might Be Giants opening. Afterwards, we ate at a place called Four Seasons Diner and Restaurant, even though I thought a diner was a kind of restaurant. I'm not sure whether Rudy Giuliani ever gave a speech there.

Our main concession to the Fourth of July was to watch 1776, although I do have this picture from June of Beth being uncharacteristically jingoistic.

And we tried the Grimace Shake from McDonald's, which was pretty good.

I'd say it tasted like fake berries. When you eat a lot of fruit-flavored things, you get a taste for both how real and artificial fruits differ. Imitation orange and grape are good, while cherry and watermelon seem way off. Beth said it reminded her of bubblegum, but that also often has artificial fruit flavors. I have no idea how the meme of people dying drinking the shakes comes from, but it seems a little mean-spirited. I'm more interested in how Grimace apparently has a brother who's a king, and how he lost the other two arms.

I've probably mentioned before how I had a dream as a kid where Grimace wanted to eat me. Not that I was afraid of him or anything, at least that I can remember; it was just a really bizarre dream. I think it also involved my sister swinging on a rope.

I've beaten Live A Live, although it does have multiple endings, and I don't think I'll be getting all of them. I'll probably write a more detailed post about that when I have the time. I started I Am Setsuna yesterday, but have only played a little bit so far. I'd seen something about Crystalis recently, and it turns out it's part of the NES app on the Switch, so I decided to check it out. I like it, but I haven't managed to defeat the first boss, the vampire with the chaotically flying bats. I'll keep trying, but there's a reason I usually stick to turn-based except in special circumstances. I'm surprised I made it as far as the Moon in Super Mario Odyssey (even if I couldn't get through that part underground with the flying Dry Bones), although the unlimited tries probably doesn't hurt, and I think games are just generally more forgiving now than back in the NES games. In terms of video games, I'm pretty excited about some of the new ones that have been announced recently. Super Mario Bros. Wonder has an even more cartoonish and psychedelic appearance than other Mario games, and that's saying something.

And Elephant Mario is amusing.

Peach and Daisy are both set to be playable characters, and I wonder (ha ha ha) about whether they'll have different move sets.

I understand it also has Blue and Yellow Toad, and they're more or less placeholder characters. There's also another Peach solo game, and a new Dragon Quest Monsters featuring Psaro from Dragon Quest IV.

I might have to play through the rest of the DS version of DQ4 soon. I finished the NES version a long time ago, and made it up to Psaro on the DS some years previously, but didn't beat him. I understand you can recruit him after that. It sounds like, in the DQM game, his father is shown to have been the Demon Lord before him, and there's something about his thinking the hero from 4 destroyed his village. I'm not sure how that works out in terms of the timeline.

There's a lot of stuff going on this month, so I'm sure there will be something else to write about here, although I don't know when.

Current Mood: melancholy
Current Music: Cracker: King of Bakersfield

Our cat Wally died early this morning, and that means we lost both cats in one week. It's a hell of a lot to process. Wally was such a constant presence, especially for Beth. In 2003, she was obsessed with Wally Cox, and she decided she wanted a cat named Wally. Then she actually found one at PetSmart. He was very friendly and affectionate, and liked to cuddle and hang around with people. He had very sleek fur, and was kind of floppy like a stuffed animal. According to the DNA test we had done, he's part rag doll. He tended to sprawl out when lying down, often with a paw stretched out, and seemed so relaxed most of the time. We would sometimes see him with his head resting against something that looked uncomfortable, but he didn't seem to care. He had some interesting ways of showing affection, including biting fingers. And when you were interacting with him and started to leave, he would sometimes grab your hand. He did a thing with his mouse toys where he'd bring them to a person or just into the bedroom, and then meow (usually with the toy still in his mouth) until someone acknowledged him. As he got older, he didn't always bring it anywhere, but just picked it up and meowed. And when we'd leave, we'd sometimes come back to find he'd brought a toy into the bedroom while we were gone. Wally actually enjoyed dry food, and unlike Reagan, he was pretty much never interested in what we were eating. The main exception was when he'd lick something salty, like chips or crackers. And he'd often sit with his tail in a J shape. Beth was his favorite, but he loved everybody he lived with, and sometimes got upset when people left even for a little while. This was true for other pets as well as people. He bonded with Beth's other cat David and her dog Dewey. During David's last days, when his eyes were crusted up, Wally would try to clean his face. And while he didn't live with Dewey after we moved away from South Jersey, we did bring him down there sometimes, and Wally was always affectionate with him. With Reagan, she didn't seem to care too much about him, but he was obsessed with her, often following her to see what she was doing. We think that's probably at least partially why he died in the same week. Last Saturday evening, Beth came back from seeing a concert, and he jumped up on the bed to lie with her. And the next afternoon, when we took Reagan away, he was sitting on top of the cat tree. He had been on medicine for his thyroid, and we had started giving him subcutaneous fluids (which he hated), but he was mostly quite active and as usual. After that, he started breathing heavily and not wanting to eat. The vet also said he had a tumor, and we had scheduled an ultrasound, but he told us the next day that he probably wouldn't last that long. So we brought him home again, and while he was in bad shape, he still walked around, and at least on Thursday night, purred. Beth was with him when he died, and I was in bed nearby. It's going to be so weird not having any pets around. I don't even know what we're going to do with the litterbox, or all the extra cat food and treats. I know that's not the priority right now, but it seems like somewhat of a loss of lifestyle as well.

Current Mood: sad
Current Music: Bruce McCulloch: Never Trust

Our cat Reagan died this evening. She's been with us a long time, and it's going to be so weird not having her around. Beth adopted her in January 2007 (on my parents' anniversary, actually, although they were no longer married at that point), and I wasn't living with her at the time, but I still visited a lot. Her other cat, Wally, was reaching under the door and meowing when she was isolated in a room. He always seemed attached to her, but she usually ignored him except when they were fighting. Soon after that, when she had her leg shaved for a needle at the vet, Beth decided that, together with her feisty attitude, she was a punk rock girl. We never tested it to see if that was really the kind of music she preferred, but it fit. She had a thick undercoat and shed a lot, and her tail bent in ways I don't see from most cats. It also seemed like she didn't have as much feeling in her tail, as you could play with it and she wouldn't care. She hated being picked up, though. There was a white patch below her chin, which we called her pretty spot (even though she was pretty all over). She was very vocal, often loudly meowing for attention, and purring noisily as well. She really took a liking to Beth's Uncle John, but later on she got really attached to me, getting excited when I was around. That might have been because I was the one who usually bought food, but I'll take it. Between that and her nagging me a lot, Beth told me Rea was my other wife. It seemed like she had more respect for me than for Beth, as she frequently walked over Beth's body, and rarely did the same with mine. But who really knows what she was thinking? She loved people food, and sometimes tried to steal it. It's not surprising that she liked chicken and cream cheese (not together), but she'd also eat muffin crumbs. That said, she could also be very picky, sometimes rejecting foods we thought she'd like, and only eating dry food when there was no other option. She developed some health problems as she got older, kidney issues and a dust allergy. A few months ago, high blood pressure made her retinas detach, and while the ophthalmologist we saw said there was a chance they could reattach, they never did. After that, she had trouble getting around the apartment, and often seemed confused about where she was. While she still enjoyed attention, she no longer jumped up on furniture or came to see us, instead spending most of her time in a bed on the floor. And she was on so much medicine that she resented taking, including subcutaneous fluids. Yesterday, she had an appointment with the eye doctor on the Upper East Side, so we drove her up there, and the doctor told us we needed to take her to an emergency room. She was dehydrated, had low blood pressure, and wasn't able to stand up. So we took her to our regular vet, who is in our neighborhood. After keeping her overnight, he said there was nothing he could do for her, so we had her euthanized. This is the first time either of us had gone through that; all of our other pets had died naturally. It was incredibly sad, but I'm glad we could be there with her for her last moments. We knew she probably wasn't going to last much longer, but it was still quite sudden. I'm not sure what Wally thinks of her no longer being around. He's seemed a bit off since we brought her to the vet for the last time, but he's twenty years old and it's hot and humid, so I don't know whether that's the reason why. I don't think he's used to being an only cat, however. Even before Beth adopted him, he was in a cage with two other cats, presumably his sisters. But I know we all loved her very much.

Current Mood: sad

Our poor cat Reagan isn't doing very well. She has high blood pressure, and we found out that this led to her having detached retinas. Apparently they can sometimes reattach, but there's no guarantee. We took her to a feline opthomologist, not an easy thing to find, and they said it would be maybe a fifty percent chance. We hadn't noticed earlier because we thought it was something wrong with her legs. She really doesn't jump anymore, and that means she can't demand attention like she used to. Instead, she spends most of her time sitting on a rug in the bedroom. She's now on medicine for blood pressure, in addition to all the other stuff she's taking. We were away for the weekend, so we had to take her with us so she wouldn't miss any doses; and that meant she was in a place she wasn't used to. Today is the day we decided was her birthday, so she's now officially seventeen. It's also L. Frank Baum's birthday.

Beth and I actually both saw our mothers on Mother's Day, which wouldn't have happened if my sister hadn't planned out part of it. I also got the chance to play a bit of Live A Live, which I hadn't in a while. I still usually check in on Animal Crossing twice a week or so, although I guess I don't need to get any more K.K. Slider songs on Saturdays for a while. If what I looked up is accurate, I have everything except "K.K. Birthday," and I can't get that one until November. Unless I cheat, which doesn't seem worth it. It's weird how some collections are just way harder to get than others. I don't have all of the artwork, but I have enough of it that everything Jolly Redd brings are either duplicates or fakes. I assume the real ones are just authentic reproductions, right? Or is this con artist somehow getting hold of the original versions of classic art? I also have never been able to catch a scorpion, and I'm not even sure how I can get more than two kinds of fruit. I collected all the fossils pretty early on, though. I've been spending much of my time trying to see if I can close some of the tabs I've had open for ages on my computer, only to sometimes find myself opening new ones.

Current Music: Apocrypals Episode 49

Stratovania

The Greatest Kingdom in the Stratosphere

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